Fundraising
Introduction
Many cancer types, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), are among the most lethal, with 5-year survival rates remaining distressingly low. Despite major strides in cancer treatment, the highly heterogeneous nature of these cancers makes it challenging to predict individual patient outcomes using conventional methods. At the forefront of transforming cancer prognosis is Gap-App, a web-based tool that harnesses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to predict 3-year survival for PDAC patients based on their unique gene expression profiles and sex.
The Science Behind Gap-App
Gap-App is built on groundbreaking research that integrates RNA-Seq gene expression data with machine learning to create predictive models that account for biological differences between male and female PDAC patients. These sex-specific models significantly outperform general models, achieving prediction accuracies of 92.62% for males and 91.96% for females, compared to 87.84% for non-sex-specific model. This marked improvement highlights the importance of personalized prognosis, which is essential for advancing personalized cancer care.
Why Personalized Prognosis Matters
Traditional cancer treatment approaches often employ a one-size-fits-all strategy, neglecting critical factors such as sex, race, genetics, and tumor biology. Gap-App challenges this paradigm by providing personalized predictions that empower patients and physicians to make better-informed treatment decisions. By bridging the gap between complex genomic data and clinical application, Gap-App is spearheading a new era of individualized cancer care. Moreover, these sex-specific models illuminate potential biomarkers that could guide the development of personalized treatment plans, ultimately enabling targeted therapies to address the complexity of cancer heterogeneity.
How Donations Help
Gap-App is a publicly accessible, freely available tool for researchers, clinicians, and patients worldwide (www.gap-app.org). To continue innovating and expanding its impact, we rely on donations to:
- • Maintain Web Infrastructure:: Ensure that Gap-App remains a stable, secure, and user-friendly platform accessible to all.
- • Expand Our Data: Although Gap-App does not retain users' datasets for security reasons, we are building storage servers to host de-identified, voluntarily contributed datasets. This expansion will allow us to refine and enhance our predictive models by incorporating more patient data.
- • Enhance Features: Your support will help us develop new functionalities to expand Gap-App’s capabilities to include personalized prognosis for other cancers, such as lung, liver, and brain cancers, which are coming soon.
- • Search for Personalized Cures: We are delving into the mechanisms that lead to distinct biomarkers across patient groups, such as males and females in PDAC. Identifying and targeting these biomarkers could lead to breakthroughs in personalized drug discovery and therapies.
- • Support Ongoing Research: Donations enable our team to continue pushing the boundaries of personalized medicine and cancer prognosis through cutting-edge research.
Join Us in Shaping the Future of Cancer Prognosis and Precision Medicine
Your donations can make a lasting impact on cancer patients' lives by helping us enhance and expand Gap-App’s capabilities. By contributing, you are directly supporting research that improves cancer care and bringing us closer to a future where personalized treatment is the standard, not the exception.
Donate Today
To support this vital research, please donate to Toledo Area Medical Foundation (TAMF) by visiting here.
You can also scan the QR code below for donation.
For more information, please visit https://www.utfoundation.org/ or contact Christina Bentlage by clicking here.
You can also scan the QR code below for donation.
For more information, please visit https://www.utfoundation.org/ or contact Christina Bentlage by clicking here.
Thank you for considering a contribution to this important cause. Together, we can continue to drive this innovative tool forward and bring hope to those facing the challenges of a cancer diagnosis.